


What Dreams May Come (Revisited)

by VeryNonyIdeas



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Angst, Blood and Gore, Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Healing, Hurt/Comfort, Mild Gore, Mild Smut, Sexual Content, Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-21
Updated: 2018-12-21
Packaged: 2019-09-24 07:09:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17096108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VeryNonyIdeas/pseuds/VeryNonyIdeas
Summary: "I didn't leave you. This was undone. It didn't happen. Right?"Doubt and guilt are a deadly combination.( This is a revision of the previous iteration of this story. It has a much better flow now. Please enjoy. ^_^ )





	What Dreams May Come (Revisited)

I had been walking in darkness for a while now, unsure of when I started.

Gravel crunched beneath my feet as I continued down the darkened hallway, heading towards some distant glow. There was something was else drawing me forward. A song. It was like a pied piper was humming a tune that I had to follow.

**_Where do you want me to go?_ **

That’s when I noticed them.

Small cracks in the walls, like veins, that covered almost every surface. Shimmering crystals were visible within the cracks and a strange light emanated from them. As I walked, I came across more stones where the crystals had burst forth, bathing my passage in its eerie light. Only this light was what had hummed, what had called out to me: red lyrium.

**_This shouldn’t be here._ **

The Blight, a darkness that poisoned all living things, had wormed its way into the lyrium crystals. Infected it. Turned the once bright blue into a murderous red. It warped the lyrium’s song into one full of dissonance and despair.

It wanted me to come closer, to touch it, to feel the stroke of my fingers, to be brushed against my lips. To taste it. If only I would stop resisting.

I dug my nails into my palms and kept moving. Pain. It cleared my thoughts and focused my will. To give in to its whispered words would be to surrender myself to a slow and painful death. The crystals would burrow through my bones, grow beneath my skin, and consume me from the inside out. Leaving only red lyrium in my place.

The haze around the glowing veins undulated, reaching out as I passed by. They searched for something to latch onto, to feed on. Anything it could grasp. And so, I kept my arms close to my chest and dodged the tendrils as I continued forward.

**_Everything will be fine. Just don’t touch any of it._ **

Lies. Even such close proximity was a to risk my sanity. Its call would eventually wear down my will and drive me mad. I’d be lost to its song, seek it out, and then be consumed.

**_But for now, I’m safe…so long as I don’t touch it._ **

The red lyrium pulsated with life, hungering, calling to me with its twisted song. Growing bright with each beat, it suffused the corridor in its sickening light. Yet, there was something else.

**_What is that? It’s like a feeling, but also a sound._ **

It tugged at me, drawing me further, towards an open door at the end of the hall. Shadows deepened and crept in from the edges of my vision, blurring all but what laid directly ahead of me.

“Hello?” I turned, searching for the source. “Is someone there?”

There was humming. Just at the edge of my hearing. A soft tune that had a sharp edge which rang, and rang, and rang. I could feel it in my teeth. Resonating.

**_Is it the red lyrium?_ **

“We walked and waked where willows…No.” A familiar voice echoed down the hall. One I heard a thousand times, but never like this. The humming had mixed within her words, shaking the cadence of her speech. “Where willows wail, we waited…No. Where willows…? Ugh.”

The shuffling of feet pacing in frustration, grew louder. Off to my left. Closer. A shadow moved against the angry red glow of the lyrium.

“Remember, stupid. They can’t take that.”

There, in a cell. Pacing and tripping over her words. Sweat soaked hair stuck to her forehead. Clothing frayed and hanging off her slim frame. Her lips, cracked and dry, moved restlessly. Lost. Trying to remember the words that meant so much to her.

**_Sera. My Sera._ **

Each step echoed loudly as I approached the bars. “No…this cannot be. Please, don’t let this be real. Not again,” I whimpered.

She starts at the sound of my voice, but turned away from me, mumbling and caressing the glowing red lyrium crystals that jut out from the cell wall.

“Sera?” The cell door was unlocked, and it creaked on its hinges as I entered. “Sera, is that really you?”

**_Please let me be wrong._ **

“Inky” Sera warbled. Her voice was soft, thick with tears, and hoarse from untold hours of crying. The humming edge of her words made the hairs on my neck stand on end.

“You left me. Said you’d protect me, then didn’t. Left me with those demons.” Her nails broke as she dug her fingers into the red lyrium’s edge, “I cried, you know. Stupid… Used up all my arrows. Made them pay. Those shits. Had to use a blade. Piece of crap, it was. Still, made them regret it. Should have killed me.”

Sera choked back a sob. “…But then it didn’t matter. You were still gone. You left me here and it got friggin worse.” Something thick and wet dripped onto the cell floor. “Always worse.” Her laughter held a manic edge to it, darker and different from the usual. “That’s always the way, innit?”

Fear tightened my throat, strangling my words as I reach out to her. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t want to leave. I watched you fall to the demons. Just like the others. Dorian…he said we had to go. That if we went back through the rift then none of this would have happen. All of this would be undone.” Sera stiffens when my hand touched her. Frail and boney. I could smell the sickness on her, along with old blood.

**_Just like before._ **

“He promised me that you wouldn’t have to endure all this. You would be safe. That this wasn’t real!”

At that, she whipped around in my arms, “Is this not real enough for you!”

It felt like the world dropped out from beneath me. Bile rose as I choked on a sob. “No, oh please, no.”

**_My Sera…my strong and beautiful Sera._ **

She was covered in dried, old blood. Flecks of it were scattered across the lower half of her face. Her teeth were stained red. So much red. And her body… it was covered in it. The front of her tunic was shredded from the claws that had ripped their way through her.

Images flashed before my eyes. A terror demon, mouth opened unnaturally wide as it let out an ear-piercing screech. Paralyzed with fear, I could only watch as Sera ran out of arrows. She went for her knife, screaming right back at the demon. Fast, unbelievably fast. Long sharp fingers dug into Sera’s stomach. Her scream turned into a gurgle. Red. Always red. It splashed across the stones.

Sera grabbed the front of my jacket with a grip stronger than it had any right to be, snapping me out of my memories of a future that didn’t happen. It couldn’t have happened.

**_I fixed this._ **

“But…you died.” I clutched at her shoulders, searching her eyes. They glowed red, corrupted. But they were still Sera’s eyes, the same eyes that once reflected the depths of her feelings for me, but now held nothing but sickness and corruption. “I saw you die! I couldn’t save you. And then I went back and stopped it from happening. I stopped it so that I would never have to watch you die again!”

“I didn’t die, Inky. You left me like this. Hurting. Dying.” Blood seeped from her lips. The wounds bled anew. “But I couldn’t die. They wouldn’t let me die!” Coughing wetly, her words grew weaker. “Not when they could hurt me more.”

I caught Sera, held her close, as her legs gave out. Shallow breaths echoed in my ears. Tears streamed down her face, trailing through the dried blood and dripping off her chin. A shaky blood-soaked hand smeared red, red, red as she caressed my cheek. “Not when seeing you again would be enough to kill me.”

Sera held my gaze, as I watched in horror as the light within her faded. She smiled, as brilliant as the day we first met, but the blood that trickled from her lips was just as bright.

Her eyes fluttered closed. Blood flowed freely, drenching the front of her body as it pressed into mine. Soaking through my clothes and onto my skin. Blood, hot and thick. My hands were slick with it, and still I held Sera tightly as we sunk to the ground.

“Oh Sera, sweetheart, please don’t go. Please!” I frantically tried to stop the flow of blood. It slowed to a trickle, but that wasn’t enough. Too much of it puddled around us, spreading outward as it soaked into the stones. Feeding the red lyrium that surrounded us. “Don’t do this. Stay with me, please…I can’t lose you!” Her lips moved, and I pulled her close, desperate to hear her words. Anything that would give me hope.

Her breath rattled out, “Love…you…for always…Inky.”

“NO!” She felt heavy in my arms. Still. “No…no, no, no, no, no!” I shook her, begging for this not to be real. “NOOOOOOO!!!”

Tears blurred my vision as everything turned red. I couldn’t do this again. I couldn’t lose her.

**_Not my Sera. Not again._ **

The humming grew louder with my sobs. I could still hear her. _Inky_ . Whispered over and over. My face buried in her chest, clutching her still warm body to me. _Inky_.

“Sera, no, please. Don’t go!” I cried, “Don’t leave me like this!”

Her nickname for me echoed louder and louder, coming from all sides. It surrounded me. Shook the stones until they fell from the ceiling, crumbled from the walls. They crushed my body, broke my bones, and silenced my screams. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t-

“Inky!”

**_I…I don’t know where it’s coming from. Is it really Sera?_ **

“Wake up, ya daft tit!”

Wetness hit my cheek like the first drops of a warm rain. They rolled down my face and mingled with my own tears.

**_My Sera?_ **

“Dammit, Inky, BREATHE!”

I gasped for breath. Warm arms had wrapped around me, holding me tight. I couldn’t smell blood anymore. Just sweat, dragonthorn ash and a hint of vandal aria oil, a scent redolent of honey and cut grass. The same oil frequently used on her bow.

“Sera?”

“You arse! Will you friggin open your eyes already!?”

I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and looked up into the one face that I could never get enough of. My Sera. Her gray eyes were red from crying. Puffy, but free of the corruption I saw in my nightmare. It was really her.

“Sera!” I clutched at her tightly as I buried my face in her chest, sobbing.

“What the frig is wrong with you?!” Sera smacked my shoulder, “You scared me right half to death! You ass! Kept calling my name and saying stupid scary shite. And you were crying. Getting all wet and snotty. I couldn’t wake you.” She held me close, tight and bruising.

I clung to her, listening to her frantic heartbeat. My tears continued to fall as I tried to convince myself that this was real. She was real.

**_We’re both safe._ **

“You stopped breathing and scared the piss out of me. But now you’re awake and breathing, but you’re still crying. And I don’t know what to do.” She mumbled into my hair, “It hurts to see you like this, Inky. Don’t want you to cry. Want you to smile.”

**_I want that too. I want that for both of us._ **

We held each other like that for a while, clung tightly, but content to be in each other’s arms. The sun crept along the horizon and the sky brightened, chasing back the shadows from our room.

Her fingers stroked through my hair, just as they had for the past hour. “It was that dream again, right? That shitty not-real future that didn’t happen? The scary one?”

I could only nod in reply, as I feared that my words would only bring back more tears.

Sera kissed the top of my head. “You remember what you told me about my shitty dreams, yeah? The ones about you in the Void? How I was so scared I’d lose you? Lose us?”

I looked up at her, searching her eyes. Sera was never this serious.

**_Shit, I must has really scared her._ **

“I remember,” I sniffled, voice still hoarse from crying.

“You said that they weren’t really real. That I wasn’t going to lose you. Well, your dream is just as shit as that. I’m right here.” She pulled my head back to her chest. “You hear that, Inky? I’m right here.” I closed my eyes and listened to the thumping of her heart; calmer than it had been earlier. Soothing. Proving that this was real, and the rest was merely a horrible nightmare.

“Still gives me the willies thinking about that creepy part. Shite. Let’s forget that stupid dream and that not-real me.”

I pulled away from her, just enough to sit up and see her face. The light from the rising sun illuminated Sera from behind, glittering off her still tousled hair. Her gray eyes were calmer, no longer puffy from tears shed earlier.

**_She’s so beautiful._ **

“You’re absolutely right.”

Her smile warmed my heart, just as always. My hand brushed her soft cheek, guiding her to me as I leaned in for a kiss. It tasted of salt from our earlier crying but was still perfect.

**_My Sera._ **

My next few words were low, lips still caressing, “I’m sorry that I scared you. Is there any way I can make it up to you?”

She grinned, devilish and delightful. It never failed to make my heart flutter and stir longing deep within me. “Oh, that’s easy. We just need to chase away all those dream baddies. Can’t let them hang around that head of yours. Got to get rid of them.” Her hands wandered down my back, slipping the blanket from my nude body. “And I know just the thing.”

I shivered and bit back a smile as I felt her nails lightly trail lower. “Oh, really? You know how to chase off bad dreams?”

“Mhmm,” Sera purred. I felt myself melt at the sound. Her lips moved to my neck, kissing her way up to my ear. Nibbling along the way. “Can’t have you thinking about all that stuff in your head. So, gunna give you something better to think about.” She pushed me down onto the bed, pinning my arms above my head, “Me.”

That irresistible grin turned sly, “Just think about me and all the things I’m about to do to you. Including…” Her nimble fingers slid down my chest, across my abdomen… lower and lower, until she reached the one place I longed for them to go, “Mmm, this.”

Any thoughts of my nightmare vanished as Sera’s skilled fingers worked their magic. They were just as skillful on me as on the string of her bow. Her powerful, dexterous fingers, moved, grasped, and never missed their mark. All my thoughts focused on the woman above me.

**_Sera…and her wonderful fingers._ **

Her mouth continued to nibble and suck on my neck and ears, smiling against my skin with every coo and gasp. Every moan I made, and every buck of my hips was met with a gleeful giggle.

Or a hungry groan.

**_Sera…oh, Sera._ **

I needed her. I needed more. I was so close. My body was strung taught, waiting for release. It yearned for it. Begged for it. “Sera, please…I need…” And just as quickly, I was undone.

“SERA!”

Lost to ecstasy, my body could only quiver beneath her. Such a pleasurable surrender. Warmth spread through me as my body rode out the last vestiges of orgasm.

Even then, it was over too soon.

Sera grinned at her handiwork. “Grand, right?” She snuggled up against me, nuzzling my neck as I nodded affirmatively, still too spent to speak. “Good. Better be.” She stroked my thigh, our legs entwined, as we shared soft kisses.

As we laid together, the nightmare all but forgotten, we enjoyed our closeness. Cuddling under the blanket that Sera pulled over us as protection against the early morning chill. The sun had fully risen, and rays of light streamed into the room. I pulled the string at the side of the headboard, causing the canopy curtains around the bed to be drawn closed. Darkness returned, and we drifted back to sleep.

**_At least I had started to…_ **

“Sera?”

“Mmm, yeah?”

“Will you recite your poem for me? The one about the willows?”

“What are you on about?”

“Please?”

“Oh, alright. But I expect something good in return later. In bed.”

I grinned as I pulled her close, “Of course.”

“Right. I’ll be holding you to that. Don’t try to wiggle your way out of it. Unless it’s your breeches you’re wiggling out of. Then wiggling is fine.”

“Sera? The poem?”

"Yeah, yeah,” She kissed the top of my head. “When waked, we walked where willows wail, whose withered winding won’t wassail.”

Consciousness slipped from my grasp.

“G’night, Inky. I will be here when you wake up. I’ll always be here,” was the last thing I heard before succumbing to sleep. Safe in the arms of my love.

**_My Sera._ **

 

**Author's Note:**

> This is a revision of my first fic. It's been almost 2 years since I last touched this story, and I felt that I've really grown as a writer. That's why I didn't just delete the previous story. I wanted to preserve that growth, and the comments left by early readers. If you end up reading both, then you can easily see how the writing has improved. I hope, at least. ^_^
> 
> Thank you to dragonifyoudare for looking over my work and for the suggestions you gave me. It may have taken forever to put them to use, but they definitely aided in improving this fic.
> 
> Don't worry, I've got something new in the works as well.
> 
> Anyway, I hope that you enjoyed this fic! I know that first person stories are not everyone's cup of tea.
> 
> \--VeryNonyIdeas


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